Pale Skin, Black Hearts
by Brawl499
Summary: An OC Locust centered fic that starts mere days before Gears 1 and goes through the whole trilogy. Note, some bigger events will be different from the games. Also a lot of tie ins to DA art, so speak up if you possibly want something featured. So with that said please review and I hope you like it.


The Hollow, seven days before the Lightmass Offensive.

Inner Nexus. Queen's chamber

"So you believe they would do something like that?" The Queen asked, looking intently at Markon, a well respected Kantus priest and one of her top personal informants.

"Yes. Recent discoveries have given both me and the other priests reason to believe the humans are willing to sacrifice their Imulsion mines if it meant wiping us out. Intercepted messages from human couriers indicate that they do need control of a specific Imulsion plant to enact this plan. They called it Lethia. Messages also referred to their city of Ephyra as an area that a target of high value to their plan will move through." Markon answered, not wanting to think about how he would explain that his source is a worm goddess whose existence is widely denied. It only got worse considering this information was only given to him on the basis of preventing more fuel being added to the war's fire. The idea of peace was already hard to perceive as long as Myrrah had control, and Markon feared that the damage the queen has already caused will be irreparable.

"Barbaric fools. Very well, if that's how the humans wish to fight, that's how we'll fight. RAAM, make sure your drones are ready. Reinforce Ephyra, use whatever you need to push any advancing humans out of the city. I'll need you to personally oversee the capture of this "Lethia" place." Myrrah ordered. RAAM silently nodded and turned before leaving the room.

"So what's your plan for Ephyra? Surely you don't think mere drones can keep them out of Ephyra forever? Look at what the humans were willing to do to the surface! Their insatiable appetite for destruction will ensure that no amount of drones will keep them from their goals." Markon asked, hoping his queen wasn't as delusional as she seemed right now.

"Simple. We send in a group better than that alongside them." Myrrah stated, smiling slightly.

"The Soul Killers? You rely on those barbarians too much! They're nothing but savages." Markon reasoned, hoping the queen would see his point.

"No. They have other places to be. I'm following Akvolt's previous recommendation." Myrrah said before dismissing the meeting. Markon on the other hand is thankful that his hearts didn't drop. Just mentioning Akvolt meant only one thing.

She was referring to _them_.

_Thirty minutes later, in Karn military base, just outside of Tavriik city._

"So what is this thing again, Xiraan?" A beast rider by the name of Renn asked, holding a large human weapon that had a drum magazine on the bottom.

"It's an old human weapon I found last time we were out. Some humans I overheard called it the Booshka." Xiraan, a cyclops drone, explained.

"What?" Renn asked in disbelief, stumbling internally upon hearing the name.

"I don't know either. That's what the humans called it. It seems to function similarly to our Boomshots. Main difference is the rounds bounce when they hit something, operating on a time-delayed explosion a few seconds after." Xiraan explained, realizing quickly that he was probably boring Renn.

"Ok. Well lets see if it works." Renn answered, aiming downrange at a pack of Wild Tickers on the opposite side of a river. Watching the round as it flew, Xiraan and Renn stared intently as they saw the round fly cleanly out of the base, across the river and land in the middle of the pack of tickers. Both Drones were disappointed to see the round not only seemingly fail to go off, but then a Wild Ticker ate the explosive.

"Agh! I was hoping this thing would actually work! No wonder the humans stopped using these half built pieces of-" Xiraan ranted, stopping as the explosive suddenly detonated inside the Ticker, obliterating the nearby Tickers as well. Both Drones stared in surprise until a disembodied Ticker leg that flew across the river struck Xiraan, who wasn't wearing his helmet, right in the head.

"You know what? I think I really like this thing." Renn laughed, partially at Xiraan's expense. Xiraan only looked at Renn with a silent death glare before putting his helmet on.

"What are you two doing?" A Theron asked, walking up behind the two drones.

"Oh, hey Rarikk. Me and Renn were just testing an old human weapon I found a while ago." Xiraan answered, turning around to look at Rariik. He was a roughly half head taller than your average Theron. He was a Venator Theron, not quite Soul Killer scary but still better than a Theron Sentinel. His armor was red like normal Therons, but had black symbols on it to denote his rank as a Venator. His helmet was one of the stranger variants Therons wore, with three V shaped plates stacked on top of each other covering the wearer's eyes.

"I swear, you and the human weapons. I know you're a Cyclops, but I still think you take it a bit far." Rariik berated, looking at the human weapon Renn was holding.

"Oh really? How so?" Xiraan asked in a semi-sarcastic tone, annoyed that Rariik still hadn't dropped the issue.

"Learning the human language? Learning how to use those infernal little machines they leave lying around."

"They're called laptops."

"Whatever. Point being I personally think you take it too far sometimes. Just be thankful that it at least has some use." Rariik warned.

"So did you just come out here to complain or did you need us for something?" Renn asked, putting the Booshka on his back.

"The Queen finally took Akvolt's suggestion seriously. We're being sent to Ephyra. Thexik and Theraik are waiting for us right now." Rariik answered, putting his helmet on.

"She did? After he crashed that meeting I thought she would either never listen to him again or make him Markon's replacement." Xiraan said in disbelief, yet still glad that they were getting something more interesting than patrolling an abandoned human settlement every other week.

"You have to admit the way he kicked that door open must've been worth watching. I'm surprised the door stayed in one piece." Renn laughed, remembering the stories he heard about that day. Word of a Kantus High Priest kicking his way into the Queen's throne room and making demands to another High Priest tends to spread fast.

"Definitely, now lets hurry up before Thexik follows in his footsteps and comes out here wondering what's taking so long." Rarikk joked, turning around and starting to walk away. Xiraan and Renn followed close behind. A pissed off Thexik was not a pretty sight. The fact that she had a homemade set of practically bulletproof armor didn't exactly detract from the threat. Once back inside the base, the three drones entered to see two Kantus priests getting their weapons. It was Thexik and Theraik, sibling priests who were also the last two members of their unit. Theraik, the group's healer, wore a mixture of "cut down" Theron armor underneath Kantus robes for added protection. He was the most supportive of Xiraan's human learning stunts, learning a thing or two about conventional medicine along the way. He wasn't as good as that Sauvix drone he always heard about, but he still made ends meet. He held one of the new model Hammerburst MK IIs that were set to go into mass production soon. He also carried a Boltok Pistol and a few Ink Grenades on his thighs. Then there was his sister Thexik. One of the few female priests to take a frontline combat role, Thexik was certainly different. She wore a custom, full body set of sharp metal armor that was layered in multiple rows, with the only part of her body visible being her mouth. Her armor was also adorned with dark red Locust symbols as an added psychological effect against COG. Being more CQC oriented, Thexik had a myriad of weapons. She held a MK I Hammerburst for medium range, a Scorcher on her back for closer range, two Boltok pistols, and both Ink and Frag grenades.

"So, you two ready?" Rariik asked, tossing a Lancer to Xiraan and grabbing his Breechshot rifle.

"Yeah. Hopefully this'll be a nice change of pace from patrolling endlessly in a barren town." Thexik answered, loading her Hammerburst as Renn walked by, holding a Gnasher with his newfound Booshka still mounted on his back.

"Lets hope. It sounded like this post is going to be big, so lets just try and make it through this alive." Rariik warned, wanting to establish the point that he wanted everyone going in to come out.

"Agreed. We don't want to mess up the one time that the Queen takes Akvolt's request to put us to use seriously." Theraik stated, looking at the rest of his group. Now that everybody was loaded, the five Locust left, unaware of just how much soon-to-come events will escalate.

Author's Note

So there's the first chapter. This thing has been pretty much a year in the making. The idea has been at least. Got the idea after reading Soul Killers roughly a year ago, started writing characters, then it kinda fell flat for a while. And finally, I eventually thought "It's close to christmas, why not pick that back up and try to actually get it somewhere." So here it is now. Anybody who has read Soul Killers on the Epic Games Forums will probably spot at least a couple references in this chapter. This "universe" is basically the same as the SK one, but from another point of view. Characters from SK will cross paths with characters from this one, and it will be fairly interconnected. Another big tie in is Akvolt, who is an OC by DarkA117 on DeviantArt.

Soul Killers, Markon, and Sauvix were created by Jay The Arbiter on the Epic Games Forums. Also known as Soundwave04 on DeviantArt.

Akvolt and the door busting throne room incident are by DarkA117 on DeviantArt.

More references to DA art will come later, once the story escalates a bit.


End file.
